as Right Reason, _Giri_ has, in my
opinion, often stooped to casuistry. It has even degenerated into
cowardly fear of censure. I might say of _Giri_ what Scott wrote of
patriotism, that "as it is the fairest, so it is often the most
suspicious, mask of other feelings." Carried beyond or below Right
Reason, _Giri_ became a monstrous misnomer. It harbored under its wings
every sort of sophistry and hypocrisy. It might easily--have been turned
into a nest of cowardice, if Bushido had not a keen and correct sense of

COURAGE, THE SPIRIT OF DARING
AND BEARING,

to the consideration of which we shall now return. Courage was scarcely
deemed worthy to be counted among virtues, unless it was exercised in
the cause of Righteousness. In his "Analects" Confucius defines Courage
by explaining, as is often his wont, what its negative is. "Perceiving
what is right," he says, "and doing it not, argues lack of courage." Put
this epigram into a positive statement, and it runs, "Courage is doing
what is right." To run all kinds of hazards, to jeopardize one's self,
to rush into the jaws of death--these are too often identified with
Valor, and in the profession of arms such rashness of conduct--what
Shakespeare calls, "valor misbegot"--is unjustly applauded; but not so
in the Precepts of Knighthood. Death for a cause unworthy of dying for,
was called a "dog's death." "To rush into the thick of battle and to be
slain in it," says a Prince of Mito, "is easy enough, and the merest
churl is equal to the task; but," he continues, "it is true courage to
live when it is right to live, and to die only when it is right to die,"
and yet the Prince had not even heard of the name of Plato, who defines
courage as "the knowledge of things that a man should fear and that he
should not fear." A distinction which is made in the West between moral
and physical courage has long been recognized among us. What samurai
youth has not heard of "Great Valor" and the "Valor of a Villein?"

Valor, Fortitude, Bravery, Fearlessness, Courage, being the qualities of
soul which appeal most easily to juvenile minds, and which can be
trained by exercise and example, were, so to speak, the most popular
virtues, early emulated among the youth. Stories of military exploits
were repeated almost before boys left their mother's breast. Does a
little booby cry for any ache? The mother scolds him in this fashion:
"What a coward to cry for a trifling pain! What will you do w